Do we have free will, or are we predetermined?

[moosaid]

Libet (1983) — Finger lift

https://www.federvolley.it/sites/default/files/Brain-1983-LIBET%20-%20Time%20of%20consious%20intention%20to%20act%20in%20relation%20to%20onset%20of%20cerebral%20activity.

What they did: Ask ppl to lift a finger whenever they want & report when they felt the urge. EEG recorded brain activity.

Result: Brain started preparing ~300‑500 ms before ppl were aware.
Soon et al. (2008) — Left/Right choice

Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain - PubMed

There has been a long controversy as to whether subjectively 'free' decisions are determined by brain activity ahead of time. We found that the outcome of a decision can be encoded in brain activity of prefrontal and parietal cortex up to 10 s before it enters awareness. This delay presumably...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

What they did: fMRI, ppl choose left or right hand whenever, report when they decided.

Result was Brain patterns could predict choice 7‑10 sec before ppl felt they decided.

 

[Caaro]

All of this is bullshit because I wasn’t the test subject.

for me it is the opposite. I decide 25 ms before I make my move.

this is why I never listen to any studies or reports because at the end of the day items irrelevant to me and my being.

i wasn’t even alive in 1983.

 

[moosaid]

All of this is bullshit because I wasn’t the test subject.

for me it is the opposite. I decide 25 ms before I make my move.

this is why I never listen to any studies or reports because at the end of the day items irrelevant to me and my being.

i wasn’t even alive in 1983

The study in 2008, they knew what the person would choose before the idea even came to their mind.

 

[cunug3aad]

Peoples decisions and choices are determined by the way they live their life like what they do and what happened to and around then. Because you live your life this way you will always point your finger this way at this moment

This does not contradict the islamic concept of free will and qadr which is that you can take any choices that you want to take But Allaah has already written everything out for you. Its like we are game character and he is the programmer no matter how much you think you can choose what to do the final say is for the programmer. The pens have been lifted and the pages have dried

This experiment does look some what similar to the islamic expression of free will as is shown despite the person having the "freedom" to choose which way the finger points The state of the mind is written and the choice is known. So this can help us understand how the concept works that Allaah knows everything about us and has written which choices we will take. Allaah is obviously far elevated beyond this experiment can only predict finger direction in such a controlled experiment as a lab only 7 seconds in advance. If it were not a lab they would have less consistent results. But Allaah is perfect in this regard

In this sense the concept of free will and hypothesising over it is pointless in my opinion. You have qadr of Allaah written for you and you do not know the qadr and you do not perceive the qadr But it exists regardless and the iimaan in it is waajib. If you learn about qadr and start wallowing in despair and saying there is no point of me doing anything since where im going is determined Then your qadr was to wallow in despair over a hypothetical qadr and give up life and end up in jahannam. The more you try to outrun qadr with these schemes then it will outrun you more so the best move ironically is to believe in it and Allaahs power over it then dont let it linger in your mind